Paintgun sight

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses a paintgun sight, which integrates an electronic camera and a liquid crystal display, and has a clamp for easily and quickly mounting the sight above the universal paintball loading inlet. The electronic camera and the liquid crystal display are disposed in front of and behind the paintball loading inlet respectively; the electronic camera captures the image of a target object and displays it on the liquid crystal display. Therefore, unlike the traditional sight, this invention provides a sight for aiming at a target without being blocked by the universal paintball loading inlet.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to an electronic sight, more particularlyto a sight of a paintgun that assists paintball players to aim at theshooting target.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A paintgun is a major recreational tool for the popular “Survival Game”of paintball. The paintgun was originally used to mark and countdomestic animals, and cowboys also used it to shoot at each other forfun in their leisure time. The paintball gradually becomes a game over along period of time, and the number of participants is increased as timegoes by. Up to now, this game is developed into a shooting sport. Thestructure of a paintgun uses the principle of an anesthesia gun, andalso utilizes carbon dioxide or high pressure air as its power source.Although the paintgun has the name of a gun, its appearance andstructure are totally different from those of a real gun. The structureof a paintgun can be roughly divided into a main shooting body, a butt,a barrel (guiding the projectile direction), a breech (loading thepaintball and having the function same as the magazine of a riffle), andair bottle (power source), etc.

For a paintball game, the appearance of a general paintgun and thebreech of the paintball are designed differently from those of a realgun. The external casing of a paintball is similar to the film of a pillcapsule which wraps glycerol and eatable dye inside.

The caliber of a paintgun is approximately 0.68 inch (or 17.5 mm), andthus is generally called “Point 68”. Such caliber is commonly adoptedthroughout the world. Since the manufacturing technology is improvedunceasingly, the population of paintball players is increased inmultiples. At present, paintball becomes the third largest sport in theUnited States. In fact, the fun and fitness brought by the paintballgame makes it so popular over the world.

A general sight used in toy guns usually includes a riffle scope and afront sight, etc, and a more advanced sight comes with a laser sight.The function of these components aims at improving the shootingaccuracy, but as mentioned previously, the appearance and structure of ageneral paintgun are different from those of a real gun, since the wayof loading paintballs is to put the paintballs into an agitator that isconnected to the upper section of the main shooting body, and to dropthe paintballs into the main shooting body through an agitator. Thus,the agitator becomes a standard component of most paintguns. Since suchan agitator is located at the upper section of the paintgun, thereforeit is unable to install a sight or a scope of a regular gun. When aplayer shoots, the player cannot aim with a sight to obtain a highshooting accuracy. As to the dot laser sights that intend to helpplayers to aim at the target, it is hard to see the small light spot,particularly when the target is 50 yards away from the player, and thusis impractical for its application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide anelectronic sight installed to a paintgun for assisting paintball playersto aim at the target.

The paintgun sight in accordance with this invention basicallyintegrates an electronic camera and a liquid crystal display (LCD),wherein the lens of the electronic camera is located in front of theagitator for capturing the image of the target, and the liquid crystaldisplay is located behind the agitator for displaying the image of thetarget captured by the electronic camera. Therefore, the aiming will notbe blocked by the agitator on a regular paintgun.

Another objective of this invention is to provide a universal andeasy-to-install paintgun sight.

Since the sight in accordance with this invention is equipped with aclamp for easily and quickly mounting the sight above the paintballloading inlet of the paintgun. The structure of the clamp includes ahoop and a pressing member, such that the hoop can be mounted onto thepaintball loading inlet, and the pressing member can press the hooptightly onto the paintball loading inlet. Such structure provides usersan easy and quick way to mount or remove the sight.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent in the following detailed description of the preferredembodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective diagram of the overall appearance of a paintgunwith a sight according to a prior art.

FIG. 2 is a perspective diagram of the sight according to the presentinvention when the hoop of the clamp is in the open state.

FIG. 3 is a perspective diagram of the sight according to the presentinvention when the hoop of the clamp is in the close state.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional diagram of the connecting mechanismaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional diagram of the connecting mechanismaccording to the present invention when the pressing member is used topress the paintball loading inlet.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 1, the basic structure of a traditional paintgunincludes a main shooting body 10 (including the gun parts which is notshown in the figure), a gun butt 11 (or handle), a barrel 12 installedat the front of the main shooting body 10, an agitator 13, and an airbottle 14; wherein a paintball loading inlet 15 is disposed at uppersection of the main shooting body 10, and the paintballs are droppedfrom the agitator 13 above the main shooting body 10 into a gun sectionof the main shooting body 10 through the paintball loading inlet 15.Further, with the propellant of a high pressure air of the air bottle15, the paintballs are shot out from the barrel 12. Therefore, thepaintball loading inlet 15 is a standard equipment of most paintguns; onthe other hand, after the agitator 13 for accommodating paintballsinserts its paintball supply pipe 130 into the paintball loading inlet13, the screw thread 150 of the paintball loading inlet 13 is used tomount the paintball supply pipe onto the paintball loading inlet 13 ofthe main shooting body 10. Therefore, the paintball loading inlet 15 andthe agitator 13 will block the vision of the shooter, and thus cannotaim at the target.

Refer to FIGS. 2, and 3 for the sight 20 of the paintgun according tothis invention, comprising:

a clamp 30, for being quickly clamped onto the paintball loading inlet15 of the paintgun;

an electronic camera 40, coupled to one side of the clamp 30 forcapturing the image of a target and converting the image into anelectronic output signal; and

a liquid crystal display, coupled to another side of the clamp 30 foroutputting the electronic output signal and displaying the capturedimage of a target object; wherein the electronic camera is an electronicphotography equipment including an image detector 42 (such as a chargedcouple device array, CCD array) and a corresponding image processingcircuit 43, and the image processing circuit 43 converts and outputs theoptical image detected by the image detector 42 into the correspondingelectronic signal; and the liquid crystal display 50 is a general LCDdisplay which is electrically coupled to the image processing circuit 43by an electric wire and then display the captured image of the targetobject according to the electronic signal outputted from the electroniccamera 40 for the player's visual observation and viewing.

To implement the technology of the foregoing electronic camera 40 andthe liquid crystal display 50, it is very similar to the digital camera,wherein the image detector 42 can adopt a color image detector or agray-scale image detector for capturing the image of a target object.These related technologies are well known to the persons skilled in theart and can be implemented with no problem at all.

The foregoing clamp 30 is the key component of this invention, and itsmain function is to install the entire sight 20 onto the paintballloading inlet 15 above the main shooting body 10 easily and quickly. Thestructure of the clamp 30 comprises a hoop and a pressing member,wherein the hoop is a component that can surround the periphery of thepaintball loading inlet 15, and the hoop used in the embodiment of thisinvention comprises a first member 31 and a second member 32, and thefirst member 31 has a cross-sectional area substantially in the shape ofan open ring (refer to FIG. 4) and the first member 31 comprises threeconsecutively connected sides, which are a first side 311, and a secondside 312 and a third side 313 located on both sides of the first side311, such that the electronic camera 40 and the liquid crystal display50 are disposed respectively on the corresponding second side 312 andthird side 313, and the paintball loading inlet 15 is surrounded bythese three sides 311, 312, 313; wherein the first side 311 comprises anarc or semicircular surface facing a side of the paintball loading inletto match the first side 311 with the shape of the paintball loadinginlet; a second member 32 pivotally coupled to the second side 312 by apivotal axis 33, which has a first hook member 34 disposed on anotherside of a pivotal axis 33, and the function of this hook member 34 issimilar to a door to the first member 31, thereby defining or destroyinga close ring structure with the first member 31. The third side 313 ofthe first member 31 has a lock assembly, and such lock member comprisesa movable member 351 and a second hook 352 disposed on the movablemember 351. Under normal condition, the movable member 351 is maintainedin a locked position by an elastic member 353 (such as a compressedspring). After the first member 31 of the hoop surrounds the paintballloading inlet 15, the first hook 34 of the second member 32 is pushedtowards the second hook 352, so that the second hook 352 and the movablemember 351 are forced to move downward (as shown in the arrowhead indotted line), and under the pushing of the elastic member 353, when themovable member 351 recovers its normal locked position, the first hook34 and the second hook 352 are hooked mutually. Then, the first member31 and the second member 32 will constitute a close ring structure asshown in FIG. 4 to tightly hoop the paintball loading inlet 15.Basically, the pressing member comprises a screw bolt 361 being screwedto the second member 32 and a spacer 362 being installed at the frontend of the axial direction of the screw bolt 361. By means of rotatingthe screw bolt 361, the spacer 362 is pushed towards the paintballloading inlet 15 to further drive the spacer 361 to tightly clamp thepaintball loading inlet (see FIG. 5).

In FIG. 4, the first member 31 also has a bracket 37 being embedded intoone side facing the first member 31, and the bracket 37 is a componentof an elastic thin plate, which could be made by metals or plasticmaterials. Both ends of this bracket 37 respectively prop the surfacesof the second side 312 and the third side 313. To prevent it from beingloosened or fallen out, a concave opening 38 a, 38 b is disposedrespectively on the second side and the third side as shown in FIG. 4.Both ends of the bracket 37 respectively prop against these two openings38 a, 38 b, so that after the first member 31 of the hoop hoops thepaintball loading inlet 15, this bracket 37 jointly hoops the paintballloading inlet 15 with the spacer 362 of the pressing member. To avoidthe slippery action between the bracket 37 and the paintball loadinginlet 15, a slippery resisting pad 371 (such as a rubber pad or siliconpad) having a higher friction can be disposed on a side facing thepaintball loading inlet 15. Therefore, users can quickly and easilyinstall such electronic sight 20 onto the paintball loading inlet of thepaintgun by means of the foregoing design.

1. A paintgun sight, installed on a main shooting body of a paintgun forassisting a paintball player to aim at a target, comprising: a clamp,having a hoop and a pressing member, and said hoop surrounding apaintball loading inlet of the paintgun; an electronic camera, coupledto one side of a first member, and having an image detector and an imageprocessing circuit for capturing a target image and converting thetarget image into an electronic output signal; and a liquid crystaldisplay, coupled to another side of said first member, and displayingthe captured target image in accordance with the electronic signaloutputted by said electronic camera.
 2. The paintgun sight of claim 1,wherein said hoop further comprises a first member and a second member,and the said first member being a component with a cross-sectional areasubstantially in the shape of an open ring, and said second member beingpivotally coupled to said first member by a pivotal axis to define aclosed ring structure with said first member, and eliminate said closering structure for clamping the paintgun into the paintball loadinginlet, and said pressing member further comprising a screw bolt screwedto said second member and installed onto a space disposed at the frontend of the axial direction of said screw bolt.
 3. The paintgun sight ofclaim 2, wherein said first member comprises a first side, and a secondside and a third side being connected on both ends of said first side,and said electronic camera and liquid crystal display being disposed onthe corresponding second and third sides respectively.
 4. The paintgunsight of claim 3, wherein said first side comprises an arc surfacefacing one side of said paintball loading inlet, such that the firstside matches with the shape of said paintball loading inlet.
 5. Thepaintgun sight of claim 3, wherein said first member further comprises abracket, being a thin elastic component and both ends propping againstsaid second and third sides respectively to clamp the spacer of saidpressing member with said paintball loading inlet.
 6. The paintgun sightof claim 5, wherein said bracket with both ends prop against a concaveopening respectively disposed on said second and third sides.
 7. Thepaintgun sight of claim 5, wherein said bracket comprises a slipperyresisting pad with a high friction facing one side of said paintballloading inlet.
 8. The paintgun sight of claim 7, wherein said slipperyresisting pad is one selected from the collection of a rubber pad and asilicon pad.
 9. The paintgun sight of claim 1, wherein said secondmember comprises a first hook disposed on another side of said pivotalaxis, and said first member further comprises a lock assembly formutually hooking said first hook to define a close ring hoop to tightlyhoop said paintball loading inlet.
 10. The paintgun sight of claim 9,wherein said lock assembly comprises a movable member and a second hookdisposed on said movable member, and said movable member beingmaintained at a locked position under normal condition, and said firstand second hooks are hooked when said first hook is pushed towards saidsecond hook.
 11. The paintgun sight of claim 1, wherein said imagedetector is a charge coupled device array (CCD Array).
 12. The paintgunsight of claim 1, wherein said image detector is a color image detector.13. The paintgun sight of claim 1, wherein said image detector is agrey-scale image detector.